Asked about the remark during a blitz on breakfast TV on Thursday morning after arriving home in Australia from the QUAD security talks in Japan, Albanese said it “shouldn’t have been said”.

“Tanya Plibersek did the right thing by apologising. I do want to change the way that politics functions in this country. People do have conflict fatigue,” he told ABC Breakfast.

Pressed on whether his ambition to change politics was off to a bad start, given the sledge on Dutton’s appearance, Albanese said Plibersek had made a mistake. He confirmed that she would be on the Labor frontbench, which will be formally endorsed by the caucus next week, with the new ministry to be sworn in on Wednesday.

“Tanya Plibersek will certainly be on my frontbench. There is no question about that. She apologised. It was a mistake. It shouldn’t have been said. We all make mistakes from time to time,” he said.

Rowling said she was just thinking about doing this “out of sheer spite”. And, out of Harry, Ron and Hermione, Ron was the first person on the chopping block for the series.

She said: “I did seriously consider killing Ron.”

The writer did not reveal why she ultimately changed her mind, but the story certainly could have had a different feeling ending if she did go ahead with killing Ron.

Although Harry went on to save the world and defeat Lord Voldemort, he would have done so to the detriment of one of his only friends in the world.

What’s more, it would have ruined the life Hermione would have had, as well.

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If you loved her as both Hermione and Belle, you may want to know about Emma Watson’s net worth and whether she made more from the Harry Potter movies or Beauty and the Beast. 

Watson—whose full name is Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson—was born on April 15, 1990, in Paris, France. Her parents, Chris Watson and Jacqueline Luesby, were both lawyers. When she was five years old, Watson moved to England after her parents’ divorce. She would stay in Oxfordshire with her mother during the week and spend weekends with her father in London. In 2000, Watson was cast as Hermione Granger, a witch and one of Harry Potter’s best friends, in the movie adaptation of J.K. Rowling‘s 1997 best seller, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which followed Harry and his friends, Hermione and Ron Weasley, as they attended the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, while defending the wizarding world from Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who killed Harry’s parents and wants to rule both the magical and non-magical universe.

In an interview with W magazine in 2014, Watson revealed that she was was cast because of how “obsessive” she was over the role. “I got the role as Hermione in Harry Potter. I was nine and I loved learning my lines,” she said. “I was completely obsessive and I would do it over and over and over again. Funnily enough, in the first Harry Potter film, if you watch carefully in some scenes you can see me mouthing Harry and Ron’s lines as well as my own because that’s just what I was like. I was crazy.” She continued, “I ended up doing eight auditions to get my role. I auditioned with maybe three or four different sets of Harrys. I would just literally like sit by the telephone and wait to get a phone call and sometimes it would be weeks. I learned then if you’re waiting for something to come it never comes. The phone call always came when I was out of the house. Always.”

When she was told she’d been cast, Watson still didn’t believe the news. “They called me into the producer David Heyman’s very like pristine white office and he said ‘We just wanted to tell you that you are the preferred candidate for the role of Hermoine’. And I kept thinking ‘What does preferred candidate mean?’” she said. After she confirmed the news, it didn’t take long for Watson and her Harry Potter co-stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Ruper Grint, to become overnight celebrities. “Within about half an hour they’d taken a photograph of Dan, Rupert and I which was then broadcast on the Internet that the three us had been cast,” Watson said. “We moved straight into a hotel. There were press outside our house. It was like this crazy whirlwind; like something from a movie.”

So what is Emma Watson’s net worth and how much did she make from the Harry Potter movies versus Beauty and the Beast? Read on for what we know about Emma Watson’s net worth and what her pay was like for the movie franchise that made her a household name.

What did Emma Watson make for the Harry Potter movies?

Image: Warner Bros. Ent./Courtesy Everett Collection

What did Emma Watson make for the Harry Potter movies? Watson starred as Hermione Granger—a witch and one of Harry Potter’s best friends—in eight Harry Potter movies: 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

So how much did Emma Watson make for the Harry Potter movies? Watson made $60 million from the eight Harry Potter movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which equates to around $70 million when adjusting for inflation. While her pay for the first four Harry Potter movies isn’t known, Celebrity Net Worth reports that Watson made $4 million for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007 and a combined $30 million for the last two Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, in 2010 and 2011. (Her salary for the sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, isn’t known.) While $70 million from eight Harry Potter movies is a lot, Watson’s salary was a fraction of what Daniel Radcliffe (who played Harry Potter) made from the films. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Radcliffe made a total of $109 million from the eight Harry Potter movies (almost double what Watson earned), with $50 million from the last two Harry Potter movies alone. As for the Harry Potter movies, the eight films have grossed a total of $7.7 billion.

In an interview with British Vogue in 2019, Watson revealed that she didn’t know how much she made from the Harry Potter movies until her father told her. when she was 18 years old. “By the third or fourth film, the money was starting to get serious,” she said.. “I had no idea. I felt sick, very emotional.” According to Watson, she only received $75 a week as an allowance. When her dad did have the “money talk with her,” Watson recalled how shocked she was to learn what she made from the Harry Potter movies. “I had no idea. I felt sick and very emotional,” she said. After she learned about her net worth, Watson revealed that she took a course at Coutts bank to learn how to manage her money.

Watson also told Interview in 2009 about her first big splurges with her Harry Potter money. “I got myself a laptop. I took my dad to Tuscany. He works so hard, my dad, so I rang up his secretary and asked when he was free, and I booked us a holiday. What else? Oh, I got myself a car,” she said. She continued, “I got my license last year, and I love the Prius, even if my friends say it’s ugly. They say I drive a brick. And, to be fair, it’s not the prettiest car on the road, but it’s good for the environment. It’s sensible and boring—like me.”

What did Emma Watson make for Beauty and the Beast?

Image: Laurie Sparham /© Walt Disney Pictures /courtesy Everett Collection.

What did Emma Watson make for Beauty and the Beast? Watson starred as Belle in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast in 2017. The movie was based on Disney’s 1991 movie of the same title, which is based on Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s 1756 version of the fairy tale and stars the voice of Paige O’Hara as Belle.

So how much did Emma Watson make for Beauty and the Beast? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Watson made $3 million for Beauty and the Beast, with an additional $15 million in bonuses based on the movie’s box office performance. In total, Beauty and the Beast grossed $504 million in the United States and Canada and $759.5 million in other countries for a total worldwide gross of $1.263 billion. While $3 million from Beauty and the Beast is a lot, the amount is a fraction of the $70 million Watson made for the eight Harry Potter movies and is $1 million less than what she made for 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Watson also isn’t the highest-paid live-action Disney star. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Angelina Jolie made $20 million for 2014’s Maleficent while Will Smith asked for $20 million for 2019’s Dumbo, which eventually starred Colin Farrell.

In an interview with ABC in 2017, director Bill Bondon revealed why Watson was cast as Belle in the live-action Beauty and the Beast. “Emma Watson was our first—and really our only—choice for Belle,”he said. “For a lot of reasons: her talent, her beauty, her intelligence.” He continued, “Emma Watson is a twenty-first century, very strong female role model.

How much is Emma Watson’s net worth?

Image: Courtesy of HBO Max.

How much is Emma Watson’s net worth? Watson is worth $85 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Along with the $70 million she made from the Harry Potter movies and the $3 million she made from Beauty and the Beast, Emma Watson’s net worth also includes what she’s made from movies like The Tale of Despereaux, My Week with Marilyn, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring and Little Women. In addition to her acting career, Watson also has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brown University, which she graduated from in 2014, and is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. In 2014, she helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which advocates for gender equality. She’s also a founding member of Time’s Up UK.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Watson has also earned tens of millions of dollars from endorsements with brands like Calvin Klein, Lancome, Dolce Gabbanna and Burberry. She also designed a clothing line with sustainable fashion brand People Tree and is on the board of directors of Kerig, a luxury brand group, as an advocate for sustainable fashion.

Watson told Interview magazine in 2017 that she—as well as her Harry Potter co-stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint—struggle with fame because of their success at such a young age. “It’s one of the things that I struggle with, because the three of us—Dan, Rupert and I—were kids when we got cast in this fairy-tale series, and what happened to us was kind of a fantasy story in itself. Outside of the movies,” she said. “So the story of my life has been of public interest, which is why I’ve been so passionate about having a private identity. When I step into a character, people have to be able to suspend their disbelief; they have to be able to divorce me from that girl.” She continued, “And not having everyone know every single intimate detail of my entire life is part of me trying to protect my ability to do my job well.”

Watson also talked about the “fear” of messing up as someone in the public eye. “I know that I’m under a different microscope, a certain level of scrutiny, which I find really hard at times,” Watson said. “And sometimes the fear of doing things is overwhelming. I get incredibly overwhelmed, and sometimes feel hemmed in by that, afraid of that.” She continued, “I know that if I live in that fear, then my life as an artist, as a human being, really, is over. Ultimately, it will silence me, and it will silence what is in me—which I have yet to explore and uncover.”

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2017, Watson revealed why she often doesn’t take photographs with fans. “For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not. If someone takes a photograph of me and posts it, within two seconds they’ve created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 meters,” she said. “They can see what I’m wearing and who I’m with. I just can’t give that tracking data.” She continued, “I’ll say, ‘I will sit here and answer every single Harry Potter fandom question you have but I just can’t do a picture.’ I have to carefully pick and choose my moment to interact. When am I a celebrity sighting versus when am I going to make someone’s freakin’ week? Children I don’t say no to, for example.”

Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts is available to stream on HBO Max. Here’s how to watch it for free.

Image: Courtesy of Adams Media.

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz

For more about Harry Potter, check out The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook
 by Dinah Bucholz. The New York Times bestseller features more than 150 recipes from the Harry Potter universe, from cauldron cakes to knickerbocker glories, for fans to re-create at home, regardless of if they’re wizard, witch or muggle. Other spell-binding recipes include Hagrid’s rock cakes, treacle tarts (Harry’s favorite dessert), Molly’s meat pies (Mrs. Weasley’s classic dish) and Kreacher’s French onion soup pumpkin pasties, a staple on the Hogwarts Express cart. The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook is a must-have for any Harry Potter fan who wants to know what it’s really like to eat in Hogwarts’ dining hall. For more Harry Potter collectible items, check out our Harry Potter gift guide here.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Today LEGO has revealed six new Harry Potter sets today, publishing the listings on their website. The sets span the full breadth from the small, 121-piece 76400 Hogwarts Carriage and Thestrals up to the large 1,083-piece 76408 12 Grimmauld Place. That’s the first time 12 Grimmauld Place has been a LEGO set, and the Ministry of Magic also gets a first appearance. Of course, the sets include lots of new minifigure designs for old favorites, and there are even some brand new characters that have never been in minifigure form before, such as Albert Runcorn, Mafalda Hopkirk, and Reg Mary Cattermole. Several of the sets continue the modular Hogwarts system that LEGO’s been developing for a number of years, with some of them beginning to revisit locations featured in previous modular Hogwarts sets, such as the Womping Willow. All six of the sets are slated to be available starting June 19.

Check out more info and pictures of the sets below, and don’t miss these other upcoming LEGO sets for Spring and Summer 2022:

• LEGO 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine
• LEGO 76989 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck
• LEGO Disney Pixar’s Lightyear sets
• LEGO Ideas upcoming sets
• LEGO Jurassic World Jurassic Park
• LEGO Jurassic World full lineup
• LEGO Marvel Thor: Love Thunder Goat Boat
• LEGO Star Wars Diorama Collection
• LEGO Star Wars 75325 The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter

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76400 Hogwarts Carriage and Thestrals | 121 pieces | Available June 19 | US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99

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76401 Hogwarts Courtyard: Sirius’s Rescue | 345 pieces | Available June 19 | US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99

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76402 Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Office | 654 pieces | Available June 19 | US $79.99 | CAN $109.99 | UK £69.99

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76403 The Ministry of Magic | 990 pieces | Available June 19 | US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99

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76406 Hungarian Horntail Dragon | 671 pieces | Available June 19 | US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99

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76407 The Shrieking Shack Whomping Willow | 777 pieces | Available June 19 | US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £79.99

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76408 12 Grimmauld Place | 1,083 pieces | Available June 19 | US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £114.99

Let’s face it: Siri is great and all, but virtual assistants can get a little bit boring after a while. Well, it seems like Apple has realized just that, because they’ve introduced a fun way to control your iPhone — Harry Potter spells with Siri. 

While you won’t be gaining any magical powers yourself, it’s nevertheless a way for Harry Potter fans to get a taste of what it would be like using magic to control their surroundings.

The Harry Potter movies were an intrinsic part of many Londoners’ childhoods.

An entire generation grew up alongside Harry, Ron and Hermione, dreaming of receiving our Hogwarts letters.

But as we fantasised about spending the summer holidays with the Weasleys, JK Rowling was plotting a much more sinister ending for one beloved character.

READ MORE:Harry Potter: The beloved main character you probably didn’t know was played by several people

One iconic wizard got severely injured during Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but was supposed to meet an entirely different fate.

Arthur Weasley, played by Mark Williams, was the father of Ron Weasley and his siblings.

He was happily married to Molly Weasley and was loyal to the Order of the Phoenix, the organisation that helped fight Voldemort.

In the fifth movie, Arthur is on patrol at the Ministry of Magic when he gets attacked and seriously hurt by Voldemort’s snake Nagini.

Harry sees the attack in a vision and Arthur ends up in hospital, where he recovers in time for Christmas.

But JK Rowling initially planned to have Arthur die in the Ministry.

She said in various interviews that she wanted to kill off parents in the universe to show just how frightening Lord Voldemort’s rule was.

And she did just that – Remus Lupin and Tonks, Harry’s Parents and Voldemort’s own parents are among the ones she killed off.

But the author said she kept Arthur Weasley alive for several reasons.

One was that she didn’t want to affect Ron too much.

The storyline of how the death of a parent affects a child was already being explored in Harry himself and could have been repetitive.

She also said in an interview with the Today Show in 2007 that she couldn’t bear to part with Arthur: “If there’s one character I couldn’t bear to part with, it’s Arthur Weasley.

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“I think part of the reason for that is there were very few good fathers in the book.

“In fact, you could make a very good case for Arthur Weasley being the only good father in the whole series.”

Ultimately, she let him live and he went on to be an advocate for Muggle rights.

Have a Harry Potter story you think we should cover? If so, email lea.seeberg@reachplc.com

A: Many of the [climate] actions I was taking were in public spaces, whether that was marches or direct actions with Greenpeace. But at home, I was also quietly implementing changes. I began thinking maybe those quieter practices were almost as interesting as the public actions. The book is about enabling us to make better, more informed choices when we’re faced with so many options. The title, “Go Gently,” is [saying] we should be gentle so we can sustain these actions over time.

• Harry may be the hero of the “Harry Potter” series, but not that much is known about his family.
• Harry’s grandfather made his fortune from a hair potion, which Hermione used for the Yule Ball.
• James and Lily were recruited to be Death Eaters, and they defied Voldemort at least three times. 

Over 3 million people read Morning Brew ; you should too!

James and Lily Potter, Harry’s parents, were murdered at the very beginning of the fantasy series, so information about their lives and characteristics are largely shared through stories and the occasional flashback.

Because of this, there are likely some major details that fans may not remember about the Potter family. 

Before using her platform to spread transphobic messages, the series’ controversial author, JK Rowling, was known to use Twitter, interviews, and the official Wizarding World website to expand the “Harry Potter” canon beyond the seven books.

With this information and the original series in mind, read on for some facts about James, Lily, and Harry that even the biggest “Harry Potter” fans might not know.

Lily and James were recruited to become Death Eaters

During an interview at the 2004 Edinburgh Book Festival, originally transcribed on JKRowling.com, Rowling said, “Muggle-borns are not allowed to be Death Eaters, except in rare circumstances.”

But the author also told The Leaky Cauldron’s “PotterCast” podcast in 2007 that Voldemort tried to recruit Muggle-born Lily Potter, along with James, to join the group. 

She said it was established in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” that, “He wanted them, and they wouldn’t come over.”

James was conceived very late in his parents’ lives

James was an only child born to Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, according to Wizarding World.

During a 2005 interview with The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet, Rowling said the pair had struggled to conceive for years and were “elderly” when they found out they were pregnant with James. 

The miraculous nature of it, along with being an only child, led Fleamont and Euphemia to dote on James. But they died of natural causes before Harry was born. 

There’s a reason Harry’s eyes are different in the books and the movies

Warner Bros.

Harry hears that he has his “mother’s eyes” multiple times throughout the series.

The books describe Lily and Harry’s eyes as being bright green. But in the films, Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has blue eyes.

The filmmakers tried to remedy that by using colored contact lenses, but according to a tweet from the official Wizarding World Twitter, Radcliffe had an allergic reaction to them.

James’ first meeting with the Dursleys didn’t go so well

Lily’s relationship with her sister, Petunia, was strained from the moment Lily began developing her powers — and the pair never truly recovered.

And the relationship between James and Petunia’s husband, Vernon Dursley, was apparently no better. 

In a 2015 feature on Pottermore (now called Wizarding World), Rowling said that the first meeting between the two men was disastrous, with Vernon taking offense at everything from James’s broom to his family fortune being held at Gringotts.

The evening ended in tears, and the men never reconciled. 

Rowling gave Harry her own birthday

Authors often embed bits of themselves into their characters, and it was no different with Rowling and “Harry Potter.”

The titular character was born on June 31, the same date as Rowling’s own birthday. 

Harry’s grandfather, and his fortune, are connected to Hermione Granger

Warner Bros.

The Potter family got its wealth, in part, due to Fleamont Potter’s Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, which was said to tame “even the most bothersome” hair, according to Wizarding World.

The potion was wildly popular and quadrupled the family fortune.

While primping for the Yule Ball in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” Hermione uses Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion to tame her frizzy mane.

James and Lily defied Voldemort 3 times

The infamous prophecy Sybil Trelawney made mentions a child “born to those who have thrice defied him.”

In the same 2007 podcast interview with “PotterCast,” Rowling clarified the portion of the prophecy, which could’ve been true about Harry or Neville Longbottom’s parents. 

“If you’re counting, which I do, any time you arrested one of his henchmen, any time you escaped him, any time you thwarted him. That’s what he’s looking for,” she said. “And both couples qualified because they were both fighting.”

The author also said James and Lily’s refusal to join the Death Eaters counted as a strike against them. 

James and Lily were Head Boy and Head Girl at Hogwarts

Each year at Hogwarts, two seventh-year students are named Head Boy and Head Girl. These students are usually chosen from the previous batch of prefects and have miscellaneous duties and responsibilities throughout the school.

When he meets Harry, Hagrid tells him that his parents were “Head boy an’ girl at Hogwarts in their day.”

Although Lily was a Gryffindor prefect, Remus Lupin was the male prefect their year, so it’s a little confusing to understand how James became Head Boy.

But Hermione tells Harry in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” that his status as quidditch captain puts him on par with the prefects, and since James was also the captain in his years at Hogwarts, that could’ve helped land him the role. 

Harry’s parents married young

Harry Potter/Warner Bros.

Although there is no exact wedding anniversary for James and Lily in “Harry Potter” canon, we know that their nuptials took place sometime between the summer of 1978, when they graduated from Hogwarts, and the fall of 1979, when Harry was conceived. 

That means the pair was married before they turned 20. 

Harry eventually lost his ability to speak Parseltongue

When Voldemort tried to kill Harry as a baby and instead unknowingly turned him into a Horcrux, Harry was left with the ability to speak to snakes in Parseltongue — an innate, hereditary skill that’s rare outside of the bloodline of Salazar Slytherin.

But according to Wizarding World, when the bit of Voldemort’s soul inside Harry was destroyed during the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry stopped being a Parselmouth.

Harry and Voldemort are distantly related through the Peverell family

Warner Bros.

The Peverell family is very important in the Wizarding World. The three Peverell brothers — Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus — were the original owners of the Deathly Hallows.

Although not necessarily surprising given the small community of wizarding families in the UK, both Harry and Voldemort are distantly connected to the Peverell line. 

Harry is related to Ignotus on his father’s side, which is how he ended up with the invisibility cloak. And Cadmus’s line led to the Gaunt family, which is Voldemort’s mother’s bloodline.

Harry eventually got his own Chocolate Frog trading card

On Harry’s first trip on the Hogwarts Express in “Sorcerer’s Stone,” Ron introduced him to Chocolate Frogs, and the collectible trading cards featuring historically significant witches and wizards that come with them. 

Given everything that Harry did to protect Hogwarts and defeat Voldemort, it makes sense that he’d eventually get his own Chocolate Frog card.

Rowling confirmed during a 2007 live chat with Bloomsbury, transcribed on Accio Quote, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione all ended up with their own cards. 

A rare first edition Harry Potter book bought from a store in Surrey could make a six figure sum when it goes under the hammer.

Bought from the former Bookworm in Leatherhead, the edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sat unread, unopened and in a protective sleeve since 1997.

And while Hanson Auctioneers hopes to make over £100,000 from the book, it was almost returned for £12.99 after its Sussex-based owner believed it had a fatal flaw.

Read more:I went to Camberley’s best rated cafe for breakfast and the scrambled eggs were amazing

“It didn’t have a dust jacket and I thought it should,” said the seller, who pre-ordered the book.

“I was really disappointed when I went to pick it up. I’m a collector and, being a first edition, I expected it to have one. I decided to keep the book on the toss of a coin. It was a moment of destiny.”

It wasn’t until years later the owner discovered that Philosopher’s Stone hardback first issues don’t come with a dust jacket.

The 68-year-old said: “Leatherhead Bookworm, one of those magical old books shops, no longer exists but I still hear from the man who sold me the book. He likes to remind me that I nearly had my money back just because it didn’t have a slip cover. I remember standing in the doorway debating whether to keep it.

“I took it home and tucked it away in darkness on a high book shelf to keep it from prying eyes but, more importantly, because the paper in the book is poor quality. I was told to keep it away from sunlight to prevent it going brown.

“I bought that first issue of Philosopher’s Stone because I noticed an advert for it in a magazine called Bookseller in 1997. It compared JK Rowling’s book to the Famous Five novels and predicted it could be a prize winner. I loved reading Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books when I was a child – and I liked them to have a dust jacket.”

The book has now been kept in perfect condition after the owner borrowed a dust jacket from his daughter’s fourth edition of the book.

He added: “I’ve really looked after it. It’s in the best condition it possibly can be – almost perfect I would say. It’s never been read. A year after I bought it, with Harry Potter excitement growing at my daughter’s school, she asked if she could read it. I said no, absolutely not.

“Instead, I bought her another copy and a later issue of The Chamber of Secrets – both in the Harry Potter Gift Set slipcase. By that time, I’d also acquired a mint first issue of Chamber of Secrets, which I am also auctioning.

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“My daughter’s copy of Philosopher’s Stone was a fourth issue – with a dust jacket. So, I put that on my first edition to protect it and tucked it away together with my Chamber of Secrets first edition, also protected by the slipcase. They have always been kept separate from my main books collection and hidden in the house.

“I started collecting books in my 40s. I worked for a paper company and mixed with people in the books fraternity. I used to go out at lunchtime looking for rare finds and got hooked. I have quite a big books collection.”

It was only when the owner considered selling the book that he realised a dust jacket was not specified on first editions.

He said: “N ow I’ve reached the time of life when it would be useful to pay off the mortgage so I’ve decided to sell. It’s not easy to part with. Collectors have difficulty selling their prized possessions.”

Jim Spencer, from Hansons, has built up a global reputation for selling rare Harry Potter books.

He said: “The owner travelled a long way to see me. We sat down and made ourselves comfortable, but I was nervous about removing the book’s jacket. I receive countless Potter enquiries every single day, but this one had grabbed me and I hoped it would be right.

“My only fear was that it was too good to be true. I inspected the book closely, again and again, comparing it with two other first issues of the same work, studying the covers and text with a magnifying glass. Everything added up perfectly. I couldn’t believe it. It was like stepping back in time to 1997.”

In December 2021, a near pristine edition of the Philosopher’s Stone sold for around £349,186 at an auction house in Dallas, USA. It is the highest price paid for an edition of the book.

Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said: “It would be amazing to beat the price achieved in America with this near perfect, as-good-as-new Potter first edition. Our guide price is £40,000-£60,000, roughly the same as the estimate put on the book sold in Dallas. I’d like to think our copy could achieve £100,000 – or, better still, smash the world record.”

The Harry Potter hardback first editions will be offered as one lot in Hansons Auctioneers’ Library Auction on March 9, estimate £40,000-£60,000. Catalogue due live March 2. To find out more, email jspencer@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk.

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